Companies Expanding Overseas Create U.S. Jobs, Study Says

U.S. companies operating
internationally help spur economic growth that creates domestic
jobs to meet demand in foreign markets, according to a study
conducted for two business associations.

When companies trade or invest overseas, it fuels hiring
and investment in the U.S., the Business Roundtable and the
United States Council for International Business said in the
study released today. The groups suggest that U.S. policies and
trade agreements be flexible to accommodate opportunities for
companies to generate business, products or customers abroad.

“If you think a broad goal for American economic policy
should be to try to accelerate economic growth and job creation,
we can do that,” said Matthew Slaughter, associate dean of
Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business in Hanover, New
Hampshire. Slaughter prepared the study for the Washington-based
Roundtable, made up of chief executive officers, and the New
York-based Council, which advocates free-trade policies.

The study is aimed at encouraging U.S. policies that will
support American businesses seeking to operate in global
markets. President Barack Obama has set a goal of doubling the
value of U.S. exports from 2009 through the end of 2014.

“Achieving that future is going to require economic
policies across a number of issues -- trade, investment, tax,
education -- that are based on a sound understanding of how the
success of American companies depends on their global
engagement,” Slaughter said in an interview.

Customers, Employees

Slaughter found that after signing up customers overseas,
many companies, especially small businesses, add employees to
meet the demand.

“Global engagement of companies helps create jobs not just
in their own companies, but others that they do business with,
through their supply chains,” Slaughter said.

The typical company doing business outside the U.S. buys
goods and services from more than 6,000 small businesses, with
those purchases valued at more than $3 billion. Today, 26.1
percent of those U.S. companies are classified by the U.S.
government as small businesses, the study said.

“To encourage and enable our companies to seek new markets
and succeed anywhere in the world, we need tax and investment
policies that reflect today’s competitive global economy,” John Engler, president of Business Roundtable, said in a statement.

U.S. companies operating abroad had 28.1 million domestic
employees, spent $253.8 billion on research and development and
had $587.3 billion in capital investments, according to 2010
data, the most recent available, analyzed in the report.